My turn to rant about politics...

Today I went back to Mr. Thompson's blog to see if I was added to "the list" yet and Rachel K's blog title really caught my eye, "My rant on politics part 2" and I thought "Wait there was a part 1?!" so I checked it out and she had some really interesting things to say. They were things I thought I would never hear another person around my age talk about in that way so it did cheer me up but also got me agitated in a way. (towards the topic not the poster). So definately check it out - http://rachelksblog.blogspot.com/

Personally, I would take it a step further and say that they know that it's easier to reach the people through Ads rather than through speeches, but their dream is for us to vote for them without them ever telling us what they're going to do in office. Believe me, we've almost reached that point already! It seems like they are more interested in winning the moniker, the title Mr. President, than actually doing what the people want to do. So, today, it seems we can break down campaigns into a series of promises, accusations, and denials.

Each of the two parties makes promises. It doesn't really matter what each of them promise so long as it's the exact opposite of the other party.
"If elected, I will abolish the citizens' right to own guns and replace it with a mother's right to an abortion," said the member of the one party anyone in the U.S. ever cares about.
"If elected, I will give every 18 year old a gun, and force every pregnant woman to have their child, no matter how prepared or unprepared they are for the baby," said the member of the other party anyone in the U.S. ever cares about.
"If elected, I will pass tighter gun laws and make sure our teens have access to various methods of birth control," is what would have been said if that particular party had been given enough money to get their message out in the first place.

The top two parties continue in this fashion for an indeterminable period of time, stating their ideals. After they are sure they have won the vote of their respective sects of followers, they start playing the slander game. They bring out their oppenent's dirty laundry and declare, "Aha! Here we find that my opponent's step-brother in law running a red light! By the association, we can assume that my oppenent also runs red lights! He is not fit to run this country!" The other candidate, in turn, denies his step-brother in law ever running a red light in his life and accuses his opponent's distant relative of commiting some kind of worse debauchery, proclaiming himself the lesser of two evils.

So, the two parties continue in this fashion for an indeterminable period of time, until election day. By now, such and such celebrities have been arrested, such and such T.V. shows have been cancelled or have ended, countless children have fallen down wells or been kidnapped or been the victim of a drive by shooting, and almost everyone in America can not recall what either of the two candidates really stood for anymore. They give their candidates peculiar nicknames like "republican" and "democrat" to help distinguish one from the other, so they know they are voting for the person that will make sure that the half of the country that voter belongs to is happy.

Slowly, we divide ourselves into two goups: those voting "republican" and those voting "democrat." Between then and election day we watch the campaign go on through the T.V. As it turns out, those who consider themselves to be "republican" end up watching one channel and those who consider themselves to be "democrat" end up watching another. The two channels jump on this opportunity to further divide us and each offers us bits and pieces of the same story, only allowing us to hear what they decide we want to hear based on who we are voting for.

And election day comes and half the country votes one way and the other votes the other way and one side wins and one side loses and pretty soon we can carve turkey, open presents, make promises we know we won't keep for the next year, fall in love for a day, watch the super bowl, light a bunch of explosives, and repeat. We fall back into routine, watching our favourite shows when we're not working, eating, or sleeping.

Occasionally, we'll check back on our government, you know, just to check if everything is running according to plan and we find that it surely is. The three branches are still there, which means the people we voted for are doing there job. Which is to do what we put them there to do. Which is... what they promised to do... that.. umm.. we agreed with! and.. we thought it was good too! so now.. uh.. they are there and doing those things we can't do you know? Like, passing laws and putting the bad guys behind jail and veto, veto, veto, and making speeches.

Sure we could take more interest in our government, but why bother? The system works! We designed and set the system to run like a giant machine, perpetually in motion, needing no maintinance. We take comfort in it's complexity, the sheer size, design, and efficiency.

And soon, election day comes and half the country votes one way and the other votes the other way and one side wins and one side loses and pretty soon we can carve turkey, open presents, make promises we know we won't keep for the next year, fall in love for a day, watch the super bowl, light a bunch of explosives, and repeat. We fall back into routine, watching our favorite shows when we're not working, eating, or sleeping....

We make a big deal about something that we not only do not completely grasp, but something that doesn't matter as much as we think it does. Yes, the president is a big deal, but not nearly enough attention is paid to congress, the house of representatives, or the supreme court. More importantly, we don't pay enough attention to ourselves! You don't have to be a politician to make a change, but you also can't change the world with one vote for the president either. It's up to you to attend rallies, sign or write petitions, and really take action and interest in the changes you want to see. Without the people's participation governments can become very corrupt very quickly.

Okay, wow, I realize this is really long but it took me a really long time to write so I would love any comments.